I work in metal to study how change happens under constraint. The sculptures begin as problems of form and structure, then open into questions about adaptation: what holds, what yields, and what becomes possible when pressure is met with revision.
Small shifts matter to me. A change in scale, balance, or direction can reshape the whole experience of a piece. Weight can read as lightness. Space can feel solid. Negative space becomes a material in its own right, defining the work as much as the metal does.
My process is a kind of negotiation. I don’t aim to erase evidence of making. I want the work to carry its decisions clearly, so the viewer can sense the movement from rigidity to flexibility.
My multicultural upbringing across British, German, and American contexts shaped my understanding of identity as something made and remade. That understanding is embedded in the work. The sculptures don’t illustrate resilience. They practice it, through tension, release, and the ongoing possibility of change.
Andrea La Valleur-Purvis is a British-American sculptor based in Central Texas who creates bold, abstract sculptures that embody resilience and play.
La Valleur-Purvis holds a BFA in Sculpture from the College of Visual Arts (St. Paul, MN), a post-graduate certificate in Innovation and Design Thinking from Emeritus (in collaboration with MIT, Tuck and Columbia Universities), and additional certificates from IDEO and Sotheby’s Institute of Art.
Her work is deeply informed by her multicultural upbringing in the UK and Germany, raised by British and American parents. As an adult, she spent a year traveling the world solo in 2015, followed by five years living in Spain.
Before returning to her passion for metal sculpture, La Valleur-Purvis held creative roles with visionary tech brands for nearly two decades. In 2023, she released her first series of public art installations for the City of Waco, Texas.
She works from her studio in Waco, Texas.
Born in 1975 in Cambridge, England to a British Father and American Mother, the family moved to central Germany in 1977. By age 5, her artwork was included in an multidisciplinary exhibit at the Mathildenhöhe at Darmstadt, Germany.
While in school in Germany, La Valleur-Purvis excelled in art classes, adding photography to her skill set in her early teens. She later held two practicums with accomplished studio photographers.
At 18 she moved to the USA where she continued her artistic development, studying sculpture and visual design at the College of Visual Arts in Saint Paul, Minnesota, from which she received her BFA in 1999.
While in college, La Valleur-Purvis was diagnosed with Hyperthyroidism, requiring a life long treatment plan. Years later, during her 5 year stay in Spain, she encountered a second diagnosis, greatly impacting her health and on-going recovery.
In 2003 she moved to Seattle and began exploring visual design as a profession, spending 20+ years working across analog and digital creative environments.
Towards the end of 2014 La Valleur-Purvis made a radical move, selling her material belongings to fulfill her dream of traveling to Australia. She spent 2015 traveling to 15 countries, making curious discoveries, new friends, difficult decisions and connected deeply to her sense of self.
A few months later in 2016, the artist relocated to Barcelona, where she spent 5 years reconnecting with European life. Towards the end of the world-wide pandemic, La Valleur-Purvis again relocated to the States, settling in Central Texas, where she launched her sculpture practice in late 2022.
